STOP Marker on Your UK Immigration Record: What It Means and What to Do

STOP Marker – an immigration red flag 

A STOP marker could be described as a virtual red flag that the Home Office can place on a migrant’s immigration record. A recent case at the High Court called Rosina Davis explains how this can work, and also how it can go wrong.  

Ms Davis is a Ghanaian national living in the UK lawfully. Back in August 2023 she went on holiday to Spain and she attempted to re-enter the UK at Heathrow Airport, but she was stopped at the border.  

This is not an uncommon event, and it can happen for various reasons. In her case she had a STOP marker on her record. The Home Office may place a STOP marker if they think it appropriate, and it shows up on their Warnings Index computer system if the migrant attempts to enter the UK.  

In this case the history was slightly complicated. Ms Davis had applied for leave to remain under family life rules, which was granted in January 2023. She evidently must have had two applications going at the same time (as is sometimes possible) because, just a few days after being granted, another leave to remain application she had made was refused.  

But anyway she was presumably reasonably happy, although the other application if granted would have been more beneficial for her. But at any rate her immigration status should now have been stable. 

A little while later, in March 2023, she passed through Heathrow Airport after a different trip abroad and evidently there was no major incident.  

But, curiously, when she tried to again re-enter the UK at Heathrow Airport after the holiday in Spain a few months later in August 2023, as we saw, something funny happened. This time a STOP maker showed up and she was detained – or, more specifically, asked to sit in the holding area near the passport control desk – and wait. Evidence varies but this was for somewhere between half an hour and three quarters of an hour, but after the Border Force had checked her situation she was allowed to enter the border.  

It emerged that the reason the STOP marker had been placed on her record was the refusal of the leave to remain application in January 2023. But something was wrong with the Home Office system here, because her other application had been granted, and she had lawful leave in the UK, and there did not seem to be any good reason for the STOP marker. The general idea is that a STOP marker should only be placed on a migrant’s record if there is some sort of issue or potential problem with that migrant – which was not the case here.  

The mystery was even a bit deeper than that: when she travelled through Heathrow in March 2023 the STOP marker was presumably already on her record and this should have been addressed and removed by the Border Force; why it remained there was a mystery.  

Anyway, Ms Davis was understandably upset and she – or her lawyers perhaps – really threw the book at the Home Office in Judicial Review proceedings. Suffice to say that not all of her case succeeded, but some of it did, and the Home Office was found to be in the wrong.  

The court did however say that there was nothing unlawful about the STOP scheme in general; they merely said that it had not been operated lawfully in that particular case. Well, this is not surprising: it is a common theme that the courts generally accept that the Home Office should have powers to protect the border, but of course they must be exercised lawfully. 

If you are affected by this issue we at GSN Immigration can advise you if you need it. 

Oliver Westmoreland 

Senior Immigration Lawyer